‘The Big Valley’: Lee Majors and Linda Evans Briefly Dated in Real Life
It’s not uncommon for co-stars to have crushes on each other or even enter relationships. Actors spend long hours on set and tend to get pretty close to those they work with. This happened to Lee Majors and Linda Evans, who both starred in The Big Valley. Their characters may have had a brother-sister bond, but Majors and Evans briefly dated in real life.
What was the plot of ‘The Big Valley’?
Running from 1965-1969, The Big Valley was a popular Western. According to IMDb, the series followed the lives of the Barkley family, who resided in Stockton, California, on the Barkley Ranch. Victoria Barkley is the family matriarch, and she has two sons, Jarrod and Nick, and her daughter Audra.
Victoria’s husband, Thomas, died six years before the show’s beginning but is often mentioned, and the family is one of the wealthiest in town. They are kept pretty busy with all the adventure and drama as Victoria takes over her late husband’s role of defending themselves and their land against bank robbers, thieves, and plenty of land grabbers.
According to MeTV, while the show didn’t garner especially high ratings, it had a loyal following. No one could deny the chemistry between all of the actors in the American Western Series.
Who did the Lee Majors and Linda Evans play on ‘The Big Valley’?
Majors was an integral part of the show, portraying the character of Heath Barkley, the illegitimate son of Thomas. According to Fandom, he literally fought his way into the Barkley home. He was initially filled with anger, believing that Tom abandoned his mother after she became pregnant with him.
Tom never even knew about his son, and Heath didn’t learn about his father until his mother revealed the truth on her death bed. The family eventually accepts Heath, and he even begins calling Victoria “Mom.”
Evan played Audra, the only daughter in the family. She was known to be immature and self-absorbed. Fandom reported that she was skeptical of Heath in the beginning and devised a plan to seduce him to prove that he was a fraud, although it didn’t work.
Audra was able to keep up with her brothers and was described as being anything but shy. She did whatever was necessary for her family and especially for her father’s legacy.
Majors and Evans briefly dated in real life
The pair may have played half brother and sister on the show. However, that didn’t stop them from briefly dating in real life.
According to Who’s Dated Who, they got together shortly after Evan’s second divorce, from 1963-64. They eventually married other people soon after the breakup.
Fortunately, the split didn’t leave behind any hard feelings. Medium reported that they kept in touch afterward but haven’t seen each other in quite a while. Evans said, “I have not seen Lee in at least 20 years. A chance meeting at a party in Beverly Hills was probably the last time we chatted. He lives in Florida. I live in Washington state. There is no way we are gonna run into each other. It’s poignant that we’re the only two still standing from The Big Valley.”
